My turn to rant: Lousy SIDs

[Idaho]

I'll get this out of the way early and then procede to rant. There are some truly awesone SIDs that bust their butts and do a great job. I love you guys.

But I believe the worst Division I SID is the guy I deal with on my beat. The football season opener is just a couple of days away. He still has not produced the weekly game notes release with a two deep, a roster with accurate numbers or anything else. No releases at all since camp opened other than one scrimmage report. The media guide is still waiting to be be printed because "they might change some of their numbers around."

On the athletic department's web site in the football section, there has been exactly one update since June 22 when he announced an assistant coach hire. The roster button still gives you the info from the 2005 team and obviously does not include the new recruits or changes on the coaching staff. The school just installed a spiffy new artificial turf on the practice field and installed a new video screen on a massive new scoreboard. There is no mention of this info on the website for fans or recruits to take a look at.

At the conference media days, he was leaning against the wall laughing at the other SIDs as they typed up releases and updated information on their websites with laptop computers. I guess he was at the meetings just for the breakfast buffet and the free golf because he did nothing else except make loud jokes that were not funny. The school I cover has yet to post the preseason coaches or media polls. There is no mention of it anywhere on the site. If I were a fan of the school, I would have to go to a different school in the conference's website to find some info on the preseason polls.

And he wonders why we will not be traveling with the team on road games.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Nothing to add to the rant. I empathize...

I was just struck by the ads under your post. My gut instinct tells me that the ad for "Arizona Cardinals tickets" isn't the best possible ad to get people to actually click.

 

[Claws for Concern]

Does this mean he has no assistant SID? Sounds like he should be looking for student help, at least. Scary situation and I, too, empathize.

 

[Batman]

I, too, empathize. This guy sounds like he'd be right at home in the SWAC, where their SID of the year a few years back didn't put out a football media guide until November, regularly answered "Was that today?" when you showed up for a pre-arranged interview with a player, never brought players in for the postgame press conference but did allow the school president's 8-year-old son to ask a question once (thank god it was an afternoon game), and devoted a full page in the media guide to his own bio (the head coach got half a page).

 

[Idaho]

Does this mean he has no assistant SID? Sounds like he should be looking for student help, at least. Scary situation and I, too, empathize.

he has two assistants. The women's soccer and volleyball stuff is up to date on the website. Still no media guides, though.

 

[Claws for Concern]

Does this mean he has no assistant SID? Sounds like he should be looking for student help, at least. Scary situation and I, too, empathize.

he has two assistants. The women's soccer and volleyball stuff is up to date on the website. Still no media guides, though.

Sounds like two other people should be in line for a promotion and one guy should be demoted or told to walk home from one of these road trips.

 

[Idaho]

He's been there for 30 years or so. I've asked my editor to write a letter to the athletic director complaining about the lack of information coming from the information director.

I mean, he's a guy that when I call and ask to set up an interview -- you know, standard operator procedure when dealing with college coaches and athletes -- he asks why I didn't just call the coach or player. As if bothering him to set things up is against the rules.

 

[Killick]

I'm pretty lucky. I've got pretty good guys to work with. The most useless guy in the world just got an AD job elsewhere. He wasn't a bad guy -- liked him personally -- he was just useless as a SID.

 

[Kaylee]

Granted, it's not D-I in football, but my life's work has become setting up some kind of trust fund for the families of SWAC beat writers who have had to deal with those schools' respective Sports Information offices.

Or complete lack thereof.

 

[farmerjerome]

Nothing to add to the rant. I empathize...

I was just struck by the ads under your post. My gut instinct tells me that the ad for "Arizona Cardinals tickets" isn't the best possible ad to get people to actually click.

Or Purdue University ringtones.

Seriously, there are some good SIDs out there. I'm lucky one of the ones we deal with is a distant cousin.

 

[kokane_muthashed]

When I first saw this thread, I thought I read "Lousy STDs"

 

[Bubbler]

There's one SID in my neck of the woods who completely refuses to answer e-mails, calls, etc. I've asked several times to be on their e-mail list for releases, and have yet to see it bear fruit.

Oh, and they mailed their season football pass to us four days before the season began, which means it's too late to mail it to my correspondent, meaning I'll likely have to drive it to him.

Can't stand that prick.

 

[leo1]

Granted, it's not D-I in football, but my life's work has become setting up some kind of trust fund for the families of SWAC beat writers who have had to deal with those schools' respective Sports Information offices.

Or complete lack thereof.

i used to deal with some SWAC schools although not as a regular beat. i always thought it was a miracle that anything ever got done at those athletic departments. basically the inmates were running the asylum. the incompetence was just incredible.

my favorite was the post-game media session that the football coach held in a bar adjacent to the stadium. you not only had to walk from the pressbox through tens of thousands of fans streaming out of the stadium (then fight the flow of the crowd to walk back to the pressbox to write) you had to contend with the sound system from the boosters' post-game party with the coach. you'd think they'd at least set the coach up in a quiet room for a quickie with the writers, but no. i only covered one game there but i pitied the beat writers.

 

[Idaho]

I'm still waiting for my season pass. Good thing they are on the road this week and he has an extra seven days to get it ready.

Of course, during basketball season last year I didn't get my season pass until there were five games left on the home schedule. Good thing I'm well known enough by that arena crew that I can just walk in and say hello.

 

[fmrsped]

This is going to sound juvenile, and maybe it is. When I was SE at my college paper, we had a pretty high-profile coach take off after a couple good years. I never really got along with the SID that well, although he's nowhere near as bad as some of these guys mentioned.

Well anyway, I got a tip this guy was elsewhere interviewing, so I tried to confirm with teh SID. This was a week after coach said he was there for the long haul, they hadn't done anything yet, same old bull****. In the same season-ending presser, he said he was set to hit the recruiting trail, which, due to logistics, consisted of Ohio, Pa., Michigan, Georgia and Florida.

So when I get this tip that he's in a mountainous region, picked up at the airport by school's AD, I call the SID and say can you tell me what's going on with this situation. So when he says, "he's recruiting," I say OK.

The story runs the next day. (paraphrasing here)

The coach was greeted at the airport by Mountainous Region school AD.

The coach said last week at his season-ending press conference that he'd be recruiting only in Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Pa. and Michigan.

Podunk State SID Johnny Johnson said he was recruiting this week.


I thought that made it pretty easy to see who might be telling a little lie.

 

[dog428]

Idaho, we should pray that your SID and the one we've got at a local school here never get together.

Got all the same problems. No media guide. The website rosters and info haven't been updated since last year. The only time the guy ever does a practice report is when I go over to do a story. He listens in on my questions and then bangs one out, which I've attempted to explain to him defeats the purpose -- if I'm writing a story, we don't need yours.

On top of all that, though, this guy here knows just enough about the SID job to be a pain in the ass. There are two, maybe three reporters who cover this school's home games. A week ago, this guy sends out an email announcing the school's "New Credential Policy." Every media outlet who plans to cover a game is supposed to submit a credential request, in writing on company letterhead, 10 days prior to each game they wish to cover. Seriously. Prior to this, the three people who planned to cover the game simply called the guy a few days before the game or sent an email and asked to have a pass left for them at the media gate. Seemed to work OK.

Also had this jackass attempt to submarine me on a story the other day. Compliance guy ruled two players ineligible because of a university mixup. Compliance guy blames the coaches for the thing. SID calls and tells me not to call the coach about it. Then calls the coach and tells him not to take my call. Dumbass. Luckily, the coach has a good idea who the moron is and did take my call.

 

[Bubbler]

I'm still waiting for my season pass. Good thing they are on the road this week and he has an extra seven days to get it ready.

Of course, during basketball season last year I didn't get my season pass until there were five games left on the home schedule. Good thing I'm well known enough by that arena crew that I can just walk in and say hello.

The SID I wrote about above is so clueless he thought my correspondent was me. Dumb **** took the contact info I put on the pass request, slapped my name on it -- ignoring the name I instructed them to put on it -- and gave it to my correspondent thinking he was me.

They never caught on, until we were both at a press conference. They were calling him Bubbler and me the correspondent's name. This despite the fact that I had covered this school on my own (same state) beat as a "visiting" writer.

****ing dumb asses. I count it as progress they got his name right on the pass this year.

 

[Idaho]

woohoo, the online roster has just been updated. It's labeled the 2005 roster, but it includes the new recruits and transfers. So I think he finally got around to asking the equipment manager for a list of uniform numbers.

He promised the game notes would arrive in my inbox this afternoon. I'm guessing this evening is more accurate.

I can't imagine how pissed the writers of the opposing team are trying to find out a little info for their advance stories. At least I'm familiar with this team and can do an article without much SID help. But the opponent writers trying to get a release or even a two-deep of this school must be truly happy.

 

[mpcincal]

Idaho, I did some online research and found out which school you're talking about. Don't worry, I won't tell.

 

[Idaho]

Idaho, I did some online research and found out which school you're talking about. Don't worry, I won't tell.

A wealth of information you must have found.